Cape Winelands , South Africa, travel, The best places to visit in 2016, lists, Business Insider:

The Cape Winelands is where some of the world’s most popular wines are produced, making it an ideal destination for wine tasting. The area’s wineries are lined along some of the most scenic routes, including a historic wine estate that dates back centuries. Enjoy top-notch wine alongside a variety of locally produced cheese, olives, fruit, and organic produce, or try a meal at one of Franschoek’s many acclaimed restaurants.

There will come a day when music and its philosophy will become the religion of humanity. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan What Sacred Geometry Really Is Sacred Geometry means literally “The Sacred Measure of the Earth”. But it could also be called “The Blueprint of all Creation”. In reality, Sacred Geometry is a profound spiritual science, which has been taught for thousands of years in spiritual traditions around the world. This is because Sacred Geometry reveals the actual patterns by which Spirit creates our World.1 There are a Ton of esoteric teachings with Sacred Geometry all through them. Yet no one really knew what Sacred Geometry REALLY represented: The segmented BLUEPRINTS to ENERGY; The Mathematical Formula of CREATION. Sacred Geometry represents the Segmented Blueprints of Magnetic Currents & Neutral Particles of Matter.2 One of the most important discoveries of the new quantum physics is that of the holographic nature of the universe. The geometric language of light, that forms the underlying matrix of this hologram, is the alphabet of the new paradigm. The primary infrastructure of all existence is written in the Sacred Geometric language of light. All is light … all is geometry. Sacred Geometry is the ‘graphic code’ that reveals the processes of inherent order underlying all of creation. The mathematical laws of Sacred Geometry govern every system of growth, every motion in the universe, from atomic bonds to spiraling galaxies.3

Remote Year, Travel the World for a Year While You Keep Your Job, Brit +:

Here’s the deal: You love your work. You love to travel. Unfortunately, you can’t always have the best of both worlds (at least not with out a major career change) – but what about when you can? Enter: Remote Year, a company that will essentially arrange a trip around the world for you while you work remotely.

Anshuman Ghosh, @moography, quirky, street photography, fusion between what was real and what was not, phone framing:“I’ve got crazy ideas in my head when it comes to how I would like to see the world,” says Anshuman Ghosh (@moography), an Indian business developer based in South Africa. He was initially drawn to street photography, but Anshuman wasn’t able to create the world he imagined in his mind — one that was less serious and more quirky. “I wanted to create something that was a fusion between what was real and what was not,” he says. “I came up with this technique I call phone framing.” Anshuman sketches a drawing on paper, cuts it out and aligns everything together to create a seamless visual illusion. “Placing the phone in the picture gives me the freedom to trick my audience into believing the phone is more than something that it is.”

A great first sentence is very important. In a novel, it’s a “promise,” a “handshake,” an “embrace,” a “key.” Great first sentences are celebrated everywhere literature is cherished and mandated everywhere it’s taught. They’re a pleasure and a duty—the “most important sentence in a book,” everyone agrees. But they haven’t always been important. When Daniel Defoe wrote the first English novel, Robinson Crusoe, in 1719, first sentences weren’t important, and so he wrote, “I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull.” When Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre in 1847, first sentences still weren’t important, and even so she wrote, “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”

A group of researchers at the University of Tubingen, Germany, have developed an algorithm that can morph an image to resemble a painting in the style of the great masters. Technically called “deep learning” algorithms, they are already in use by companies such as Google for image recognition and other applications. “The system uses neural representations to separate and recombine content and style of arbitrary images, providing a neural algorithm for the creation of artistic images,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “Here we introduce an artificial system based on a Deep Neural Network that creates artistic images of high perceptual quality.” A photograph of apartments by a river in Tubingen, Germany was processed to be stylistically similar to various paintings, including J.M. Turner’s “The Wreck of a Transport Ship,” Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” and Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

George died in 2011 at the age of 98, by which point he had upgraded from a bed in the shop to a flat on the third floor in the same building. I’m living here now, in his former apartment, ostensibly to finish my second novel. But more practically and pressingly, I’m a “homeless wanderer.” People have been asking me how I got this position, whether it was hard to obtain. The short answer is no, and the long answer is yes: I parted ways with a partner I loved, leaving the home where we’d lived together, and lost a contract I was relying on, so I asked Sylvia if I could stay for a while. She said, without question or hesitation, that I could stay for as long as I needed. George called Shakespeare & Company a “socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore,” and I feel infinitely grateful to George and Sylvia for creating and maintaining a space that prioritizes community.

In this play, as in others, Shakespeare calls on the ambiguous associations of Catholic figures, images and ideas, as a means of engaging his audience with the problems he frames. He seems to revel in the pleasures of slippery meaning. By flirting with stereotypes and sectarian expectations he makes his audience think more deeply about the difficulties of the plays and their own culture. Whatever Shakespeare’s personal religion was, the religion he put on stage was both playful and probing.

CSD students video wins C-SPAN honorable mention | DavidsonNews.net, Selective Service System, whether women should be required to register for the US military draft along with men, IMO: I have always thought that women should be required to register for the US military draft along with men and that all should serve even in peace times.

Community School of Davidson seniors Julia Conlon, Anna DeGrauw, and Zac Halsey have won an Honorable Mention in C-SPAN’s national 2015 StudentCam competition. Julia, Anna, and Zac will walk away with $250 for their documentary, “Selective Service System,” which investigated whether women should be required to register for the US military draft along with men.

Davidson NC, locally-owned bookstores, At Main Street Books time to turn the page | DavidsonNews.net: I always stop in …

Main Street Books is opening a new chapter in downtown Davidson next week. Longtime owners Barbara Freund and Betty Reinke will stroll off into the sunset and leave the marvelous business of books behind. As of today (Friday, March 6, 2015) they’ve sold the shop, The good news is that the new managers, Adah Fitzpatrick and Catherine Hamilton-Jenson, will continue to grace our town with reading material and we look forward to getting to know them.

But for today, we look back on a wonderful 28 years of “turning pages.” Main Street Books occupies the Archie Brown Building built in 1901 earning it the notoriety of being the oldest building on Main Street. Back in the 1970’s Mrs. Chester Dale (Harriet) ran The Christian Book Store in this space before splitting the space between “Shalom” Book Store and Marshall Case’s Realty Company. When Mrs. Dale sold the building to Ed Harris in the mid 1980’s, the main floor was renovated to include air-conditioning and better lighting with the balcony (yes, there was a balcony in the store!) sealed off for separate office space and bathrooms.

Mrs. Dale insisted the building remain a book store and on Town Day, May 2, 1987, her vision was realized as Main Street Books opened its doors with owners Barbara Freund, Joyce Patch and Catherine Hall. Six months later, Catherine Hall dropped out and eight years later, Joyce Patch “retired” to make room for Betty Reinke. So for the past 20 years, residents and visitors have found Betty or Barbara at their “perch” by the front door greeting all, making friends from near and far, and selling lots of books. Barbara worked Tuesday and Thursday; Betty on Monday and Wednesday; and they switched off Fridays and Saturdays. Dependable subs were Virginia Hundley, Phyllis Young and Sue Toumazou.

“As to “doing” the labyrinth, the task is simplicity itself. “You just follow the path,” says Dr. Weil. “It takes about 20 minutes.” He says there is no particular mindset one must bring to the experience, but he notes with a smile that “grimly determined to finish it as quickly as possible,” probably isn’t the best way to go. One of Dr. Weil’s favorite activities is watching groups walk the path. “It’s interesting, because they look like planets, with some of them going retrograde,” he says.

But many people walk it alone. Nancy Olmstead, Dr. Weil’s executive assistant, has done so more than 20 times. “When you are done walking, you experience two things that would seem to be contradictory: you feel really relaxed, and really energized,” she says. “There are not too many things in the world that make you feel that way.”

Jace has also walked it many times. “I like the metaphor,” he says. “One path. One entrance. One exit. We all walk it.” As for the doctor himself, “I would say that it is at least relaxing. It’s a nice walk. It is centering.”

…

One of Dr. Weils favorite activities is watching groups walk the path. “Its interesting, because they look like planets, with some of them going retrograde,” he says.

…

Because I knew that simply following the path would take me to the exit, I realized I was free to focus on the walk itself. I was amazed to find a strange, beautiful collection of objects lodged between and atop the rocks: a tiny stone Buddha, several glass beads, a quartz crystal. I had missed most of them on the way in; but marveled at all of them on the way out.

“I never quite know how they get there,” says Dr. Weil of the artifacts. “People just leave little gifts.” Gifts indeed. The lesson was clear: Focus on the journey. The destination will take care of itself.

YA Historical Fiction for Downton Abbey Fans | Lisa Parkin: YA fiction, historical fiction Philadelphiaand written by someone with a great name … and zombie fiction.

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard — Its late 1800s in Philadelphia. And zombies are loose in the city. The historical landmarks in the city are fun to pick out…during all the eating of brains.

14 Foodie Terms That Have Lost All Meaning, “artisanal”: I am glad to know what is is supposed to mean. Enough!!

“Artisanal”

When it first started appearing on menus, it came with the promise of ingredients lovingly transformed by a culinary master. Now, “artisanal” is a descriptor on frozen dinners and canned soup. Those can artisans apprentice for decades!

Are you okay? Soon after i started walking, one of the women leaving the Y’s hosted church asked me if I was OK? i then realized that if you did not know that there was a labyrinth on the raised area near the parking lot, or if you did, that you did not know what a labyrinth was, you might be confused by a woman walking in circles. So I tried to explain to them that I was very much ok and that they should try to walk the labyrinth .

Before walking, I intentionally looked at each of the symbols painted around the center of the labyrinth 11 circuit Chartres-style labyrinth. I would like to know more about the symbols.

I also notice, for the first time, that the lunation’s are scored in the concrete …

The walk ..

I always laugh when it approach the center because it looks like a Parcheesi board …

Sirens … Three fire engines scream as they pass.

More church members continue to come out of church. They are almost all African-American women with children. I see very few men, except young adult men. Very interesting in light of Edward’s Ethnic Studies class where he has learned about the role of women in African-American culture.

I have been walking this labyrinth frequently for several years. Today I noticed on the billboard (which I have looked at multiple times) the artist drawing as well as the labyrinth’s logo. It became clear to me that the “Parcheesi board” at the center is a CROSS. I feel really rather silly.

And then i notice the quote at the base of the labyrinth: “With patience persistence and prayer, a God-filled spirit can bring a seed to fruit – Almetto Howie Alexander 2011

“The labyrinth is my dedication to the Washington Heights community to inspire people of all ages to find a peaceful place to reflect, refocus, heal, meditate, find peace of mind and pray,” says Mrs. Alexander.

As most of us know, award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDxEuston talk on feminism was recently sampled in Beyoncé’s “Flawless.” Now this compact but passionate speech is available in book form. “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are,” writes Adichie. Girls are brought up “to see each other as competitors… for the attention of men” while boys are raised to prove themselves with their masculinity. Her conclusion: “If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.” Pair this slim but substantive book with Roxane Gay’s best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist, both of which illustrate how being outspoken can sometimes also be the best way to be heard.

aul Durand-Ruel set out to create value for something that no one wanted, and changed the economics of taste for ever. With a brilliant eye and steady nerve, he was the first dealer to make a business from contemporary art, and for years he was the only one who sold, and often the only one who bought, the Impressionists.

The Atlantic Magazine’s Mission Statement: Interesting mission statement for a 158 year old magazine … one of my favorites.

The Atlantic Monthly was first published in 1857 by the renowned lecturer and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They did actually launch with a mission statement back then:

The Atlantic will be the organ of no party or clique, but will honestly endeavor to be the exponent of … the American idea

The Atlantic’s mission statement has since been updated to:

The Atlantic is America’s leading destination for brave thinking and bold ideas that matter. The Atlantic engages its print, online, and live audiences with breakthrough insights into the worlds of politics, business, the arts, and culture. With exceptional talent deployed against the world’s most important and intriguing topics, The Atlantic is the source of opinion, commentary, and analysis for America’s most influential individuals who wish to be challenged, informed, and entertained.

Marcus Borg (Liberal Scholar on Historical Jesus), obituary, NYTimes.com: I do not agree with his conclusions. but I do believe his work was important.

Marcus J. Borg, a scholar who popularized a liberal intellectual approach to Christianity with his lectures and books about Jesus as a historical figure, died on Wednesday at his home in Powell Butte, Ore. He was 72.

His publisher, HarperOne, said the cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Professor Borg was among a group of scholars, known as the Jesus Seminar, who set off an uproar with its very public efforts to discern collectively which of Jesus’ acts and utterances could be confirmed as historically true, and which were probably myths.

His studies of the New Testament led him not toward atheism but toward a deep belief in the spiritual life and in Jesus as a teacher, healer and prophet. Professor Borg became, in essence, a leading evangelist of what is often called progressive Christianity.

…

“His own vision was not simply derived from opposing fundamentalist or literalist Christianity,” Mr. Crossan said. “It was a very positive vision. He could talk about Jesus and he could talk about Paul and the positive vision they had.”

In his last book, the memoir “Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most” (2014), Professor Borg wrote: “Imagine that Christianity is about loving God. Imagine that it’s not about the self and its concerns, about ‘what’s in it for me,’ whether that be a blessed afterlife or prosperity in this life.”

religion before the modern period, civilization, Karen Armstrong, Sam Harris and Bill Maher: “It fills me with despair, because this is the sort of talk that led to the concentration camps” – Salon.com.

First of all, there is the whole business about religion before the modern period never having been considered a separate activity but infusing and cohering with all other activities, including state-building, politics and warfare. Religion was part of state-building, and a lot of the violence of our world is the violence of the state. Without this violence we wouldn’t have civilization. Agrarian civilization depended upon a massive structural violence. In every single culture or pre-modern state, a small aristocracy expropriated the serfs and peasants and kept them at subsistence level.This massive, iniquitous system is responsible for our finest achievements, and historians tell us that without this iniquitous system we probably wouldn’t have progressed beyond subsistence level. Therefore, we are all implicated in this violence. No state, however peace-loving it claims to be, can afford to disband its army, so when people say religion has been the cause of all the major wars in history this is a massive oversimplification. Violence is at the heart of our lives, in some form or another

“I am dedicated to unoriginality.” So said historical theologian Thomas Oden in his classic work, Classical Christianity. He goes on: “I plan to present nothing new or original in these pages . . . My aim is to present classical Christian teaching of God on its own terms, undiluted by modern posturing.”

I echo Oden. Because, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, this year is the year to go backwards in order to move forwards in our faith.

To regress, by rediscovering and retrieving the vintage Christian faith.

But what do I mean by vintage Christianity? Before we can explore it, let’s define it. And since everyone seems to be doing listicles these days, here are nine things you need to know about the vintage Christian faith …

The magazine itself was part of an emerging genre of food-related publications like Lucky Peach and Cherry Bombe, which offer readers a media experience that is as much tactile as it is about content.

“It is part of a genre of very niche publications that say one thing we can do is create this beautifully designed artifact,” said the author and magazine veteran Kurt Andersen.

The problem, he said, may simply have been one of audience and execution.

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dying, but what is the plausible audience in such a magazine?” he asked. “It was too kind of nitty-gritty and old-fashioned, back-to-the-land hippie magazine for the food-farm porn market, and yet too ‘What about the dairy situation in the Philippines?’ for people who are really raising chickens for a living.”

Each issue of Modern Farmer, the stylish agrarian quarterly, has an austere portrait of an animal on the cover. So far, there have been six. The animals look remote and self-satisfied, as if nothing you said could matter to them, just like human models. The first cover had a rooster with an eye resembling a tiny dark paperweight. The second had a goat looking haughtily askance. The third was of a sheep whose gaze is so penetrating that she seems to be trying to hypnotize you. The fourth was of a pig in profile whose ears flop forward like a visor; according to a note by the photographer, a pig’s flopped ears trap smells as it searches for food. The fifth had a hulking farm dog with a ruff like a headdress, and the sixth has a serene-looking cow with a black face and a white forehead and nose. Ann Marie Gardner, the magazine’s founder and editor, says that she always thought she would have animals on the cover. The art director, Sarah Gephart, says, however, that she had nearly finished designing the magazine when Gardner told her that the cover would have animals. “We thought it would be people,” Gephart said.

Modern Farmer appeared in the spring of 2013. After three issues, it won a National Magazine Award; no other magazine had ever won so quickly. According to Gardner, though, Modern Farmer is less a magazine than an emblem of “an international life-style brand.” This is the life style of people who want to “eat food with a better backstory”—from slaughterhouses that follow humane practices, and from farmers who farm clean and treat their workers decently. Also, food cultists who like obscure foods and believe that fruits and vegetables taste different depending on where they are grown. Also, aspirational farmers, hobby farmers, intern farmers, student farmers, WWOOFers—people who take part in programs sponsored by the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms movement—and people who stay at hotels on farms where they eat things grown by the owners. Plus idlers in cubicles searching for cheap farmland and chicken fences and what kind of goats give the best milk. Such people “have a foot in each world, rural and urban,” Gardner says. She calls them Rurbanistas, a term she started using after hearing the Spanish word rurbanismo, which describes the migration from the city to the countryside. Rurbanistas typify the Modern Farmer audience.

Veteran Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administrator Ann Clark was named superintendent Tuesday while the school board searches for a long-term leader – but Clark will not be considered for that job.

Instead, Clark said she plans to retire from the district in 2016 when a new superintendent is selected and ready to take office.

Clark’s new position will cap a three-decade career rising through the CMS ranks. Her selection also fills the void left by former Superintendent Heath Morrison, who resigned in November after an investigation into claims that he bullied staff members. The months since then have been marked by uncertainty among the district’s 18,000 employees and the Charlotte community.

“Ann will provide the stability and direction we need,” school board Chairwoman Mary McCray said.

Clark, who had been the deputy superintendent, said it was her decision not to be considered for the position long term. She said she had planned to file the paperwork Dec. 1 to retire this spring, but after Morrison’s departure she decided it would be in the district’s best interest for her to stay.

The star of the NBA-leading Warriors, Curry ended up with more than 1.5 million votes, more than 42,000 ahead of James, who had a 13,285-vote lead over the sharpshooter at the previous update. James was the leading vote-getter last year, preceded by Kobe Bryant in 2013. Curry, who just two years ago was an All-Star snub, becomes the first Warriors player elected to consecutive starts since Chris Mullin in 1991-92.

There’s a reason more than 10 million people tuned in Downton Abbey’s fifth season premiere — and it’s not because of the pretty costumes! From dark family secrets to untimely deaths to salacious gossip, Downton Abbey delivers an unparalleled level of mystery and drama week after week.

We rounded up nine mysteries set in the Edwardian period and beyond that promise all of the drama Downton Abbey fans have come to know and love! Check out the full list below, complete with publishers’ descriptions and reviews

During the second world war, people in Britian were facing life and death issues every day. The director of religious programming, at the BBC, asked C.S. Lewis to give some “Broadcast Talks” about faith.

At first, Lewis was unsure – he liked neither the radio nor traveling to London. He finally relented, because he thought it was his duty. His first talks were so successful that the BBC wanted him to do more – and he agreed.

Friedman’s negative income tax proposed that we eliminate poverty with one fell swoop by providing everyone with a livable income, no matter what their employment status is.

Wow, right?

Before we move forward, let’s acknowledge that there’s something not quite perfect about an old white guy coming in to save the “helpless poor people” (see The White Savior Industrial Complex). But Friedman’s idea of a negative income tax is worth discussing not because he’s such a nice guy; it’s worth discussing because it’s a valuable policy idea.

A variation of Friedman’s plan is often referred to as a guaranteed basic income.

So I was looking back over past posts for 7.6 and I found several worthy of reposting.

Umberto Eco, lists, culture, Brain Pickings: So I said I love lists ….

As a lover and maker of lists, this made my heart sing: In 2009, the great Umberto Eco became a resident at the Louvre, where he chose to focus his studies on “the vertigo of lists,” bringing his poetic observational style to the phenomenon of cataloguing, culling, and collecting. He captured his experience and insights in The Infinity of Lists: An Illustrated Essay, where he charts the Western mind’s obsessive impulse for list-making across music, literature and art, an impulse he calls a “giddiness of lists” but demonstrates that, in the right hands

…

The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.”

1.27.2011 … Felt like I was in the blue soup scene of Bridget Jones’ Diary last night. 🙂 1

Total views of posts on your blog 25

And here are a few new ones … and yes they are random!

It’s A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding, NPR: Where would I want a pop up wedding?

You’ve heard of pop-up restaurants, flash mobs and other hipster happenings. Now comes a pair of entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., offering pop-up weddings for those who want to elope, but do it with flair.

Locations are never booked ahead of time, planning is minimal and fingers are crossed that you and your partner don’t get asked to leave before you are pronounced husband and wife, or wife and wife.

PopWed Co., which started last January, procures the wedding license, chooses a creative location, takes the photographs and performs the ceremony.

The Darkest Parks in the US, The Go List, OutsideOnline.com, lists: I wonder what the night sky will be like from the Camino Frances? 5000 v. 500 in the average light influenced area of the US. I have so more places to go visit …

Summer nights are worth staying up for at these 7 dark-sky parks

…

In 2007, the IDA began designating International Dark Sky Parks, or exceptionally dark sites surrounded by communities dedicated to preserving them. This makes for epic stargazing. According to the IDA, while you may see around 500 stars in your moderately light-polluted backyard, Dark Sky Parks often boast more than 5,000.

The world’s greatest cycling event comes to Britain this week – and up to 3 million spectators will watch the UK stages. But what else makes the Tour de France such a huge international occasion?

The first two stages of the annual Tour de France unfold in Yorkshire, while the third is a 99-mile (159km) sprint from Cambridge to London.

2014 is not the first time the Tour has crossed over onto these shores. The 2007 race began in London, and the seventies saw an ill-fated stage in the west country, remembered by some as a clash between British bureaucracy and gallic romance.

The UK’s love affair with the Tour has blossomed alongside the country’s growing status as a cycling superpower. The 2013 event was won, for the second year running, by a Brit.

What’s my take on the Hobby Lobby Contraception Decision? I’m not a fan of the ACA, but we have it now and if we riddle it with exceptions then it serves no purpose. I do not think the government should require individuals or corporations to provide a “benefit” on its terms. If we have redefined healthcare to be a fundamental right, then the government should be in the healthcare business. And an employer should be able to provide additional healthcare benefits. That is my philosophical take. i do think that there is a certain amount of irony in that the case will be known as The Hobby Lobby CONTRACEPTION Decision.

As for the Hobby Lobby Contraception Decision, I think it is wrong on a corporate law standpoint. The court has essentially permitted a “piercing of the corporate veil” without the legal consequences inherent in such activity by a corporations owners.

Atlanta Public Art: Sol LeWitt’s 54 Columns, YouTube, Gregor Turk: i was driving from Julianna’s on 7.3 through the Highland Virginia Highlands area and I look up and see the columns. I try to get my friends to stop (I am flailing my arms and they are looking up and seeing what looks like the foundation pilings you see at the beach.) We were under a time constraint, so we could not get out and interact or check out the stains of pink, but I will do it next time! Thanks, Gregor, I will let you know what i think.

Since 1998, 54 Columns has been a controversial piece of whether it is considered art or not. The Public Art Coordinator at the time, Gregor Turk, argues that Sol LeWitt’s attempt in minimalism had been successful.

And Gregor’s posting of the YouTube link made me search for other info on Atlanta Public Art … I have a new resource!! atlanta public art – YouTube.

Humans of New York, lightbulb trips: I really enjoy their posts and wonder what i would say. So this from the other day stuck me … because i want my visits to be so much more when I visit my mom.

“What do you feel most guilty about?”

“That I live on the West Coast, and my mom lives here on her own. I’m here on business, so I just got to visit her. My friend calls these ‘lightbulb trips.’ When you visit your older parent after not seeing them for a while, and there’s something simple they need you to do, like a burned out lightbulb that they need you to reach, and you realize that if you hadn’t come, they’d have been sitting in the dark.”

Mr. Darcy: Do you talk by rule, then, when you’re dancing?Elizabeth Bennet: Yes, sometimes it is best. Then we may enjoy the advantage of saying as little as possible.Mr. Darcy: Do you consult your own feelings in this case, or seek to gratify mine?Elizabeth Bennet: Both, I imagine. We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room. Mr. Darcy: [Drily] This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I’m sure.

How not to say the wrong thing, Kvetching Order, Los Angeles Times: I have posted this before but it is worthy of reposting …

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma. For Katie’s aneurysm, that’s Katie. Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma. In the case of Katie’s aneurysm, that was Katie’s husband, Pat. Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones. When you are done you have a Kvetching Order. One of Susan’s patients found it useful to tape it to her refrigerator.

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, “Life is unfair” and “Why me?” That’s the one payoff for being in the center ring.

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

When you are talking to a person in a ring smaller than yours, someone closer to the center of the crisis, the goal is to help. Listening is often more helpful than talking. But if you’re going to open your mouth, ask yourself if what you are about to say is likely to provide comfort and support. If it isn’t, don’t say it. Don’t, for example, give advice. People who are suffering from trauma don’t need advice. They need comfort and support. So say, “I’m sorry” or “This must really be hard for you” or “Can I bring you a pot roast?” Don’t say, “You should hear what happened to me” or “Here’s what I would do if I were you.” And don’t say, “This is really bringing me down.”

Good to Know, Thad Cochran’s Liberal Daughter Rails Against McDaniel Supporters, RedState: For those of us in the center, it is good to know that if we disagree with the tea Party/New Right, we are automatically Liberal.

“On July 18, 2006, Cochran voted, along with 19 Republican Senators, for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act to lift restrictions on federal funding for the research. He co-sponsored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002—called McCain Feingold, but was actually the McCain Feingold Cochran bill. Over his many years in the U.S. Senate, Cochran has worked on behalf of Mississippi’s needs: not only with disaster relief and farm subsidies…”

“So, for those of you who have told me this is the first time you will be voting for a Republican, allow me to assure you that he does NOT belong to the lunatic fringe who are talking so loudly and with such outrageous vitriol. “

San Juan Island WA, A Cabin Set in Stone, Shelter | OutsideOnline.com: I really like this one.

This retreat on San Juan Island in Washington is set in stone. Literally.

Carved into the rocky outcropping of the sloped, grassy site, the 2,500-square-foot getaway is nearly camouflaged by its concrete walls and green roof. Heavy equipment—large drills, dynamite, hydraulic chippers—and the handwork of talented craftspeople made the two-bedroom home a reality.

The Perfect Summer: Lake Life, Garden and Gun, Lake Rabun GA, kith/kin, Lake Toxaway NC: I adore this pic from my daughter’s recent visit to the Lake Rabun to visit a Davidson friend, her family and their 4 footed friends. And, of course, she returned last weekend, her last in the US for a while. Ah, the good life! (And her summer mountain lake weekends reminded me of many weekends I spent at Lake Toxaway in NC (one in particular when I was a college student at the Black’s lake house … skiing by the light of the moon. 🙂

Lake Rabun

Lakemont, GA

There’s one marina and a twenties-era inn, and the closest grocery store is a thirty-minute drive. But it’s exactly that quiet charm that has kept families returning for generations to this North Georgia hideout, just a hundred miles from Atlanta. Summer highlights include the Fourth of July Wooden Boat Parade—the area is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of classic crafts.

I had great fun at the Opening Gala for 9/50: A Southeast Arts Presenters Summit at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center 6.20 with Catherine W.. Seriously thought about buying a Gregor Turk original dish. As a matter of fact, I may go back … It is not often that you can own a dish designed by one of your first crushes.

2014 FIFA World Cup, viewing venues, Germany: I would go and watch!

This Stadium In Berlin Was Transformed Into A Giant Living Room For The World Cup

World Cup fans in Germany transformed the Union Berlin stadium into a giant living room Thursday, packing the pitch with sofas to lounge on while watching the opening match between Brazil and Croatia.

AP Photo/Axel Schmidt

Organizers estimate that 12,000 fans showed up at the home field of 1 FC Union Berlin for the first World Cup game. 780 sofas were registered and an estimated 3,000 watched from a couch on the field. End tables and lamps were also provided.

Some like their chocolate chip cookies soft and chewy. Others prefer it a little crispier. No matter what your cookie preference is, a simple adjustment in ingredients will help you bake your perfect batch of chocolate chip cookies.

OZY took insights from several science-focused food experts (UCLA Science and Food teacher Kendra Nyberg, cookbook author Tessa Arias, Serious Eats, and cookie videos) to come up with rules of thumb for making different kinds of cookies.

For example, if you want a crispy cookie with a soft center, use 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. Want it more cakey? Use more baking soda to puff the cookies up.

New World Heritage Sites include the earthen remains of a Louisiana civilization dating back to 3700 B.C., Myanmar’s Pyu ancient cities (Myanmar’s first-ever site), and evidence of the end of the age of dinosaurs at the cliffs of Stevns Klint in Denmark.

Trading routes that crossed modern borders across South America and Asia were also inscribed on the list. The Qhapac Nan, the Andean road system, runs through Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. A 5,000-kilometer section of the Silk Roads known as the routes network of Chang’an-Tianshan Corridor crosses through China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to being of “outstanding universal value,” an inscribed site must also meet at least one of 10 criteria such as “representing a masterpiece of human creative genius,” containing “exceptional natural beauty” or being an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement.

Other new sites include the Okavango Delta (Botswana); the Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc (France); Rani-ki-Vav (India); Caves of Maresha and Bet Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands (Israel); the vineyard landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato (Italy); Namhansanseong emergency capital city (South Korea); and Saudi Arabia’s historic Jedda, the Gate to Makkah.

UNESCO has been gradually adding to the World Heritage List since 1978.